Épisodes

  • “My Place” Part 1: Mary Lannon and Wichuda “Tang” McConnell (Episode 81)

    “My Place” Part 1: Mary Lannon and Wichuda “Tang” McConnell (Episode 81)
    Jun 19 2025
    For this show, produced in collaboration with Queens Memory and the Greater Astoria Historical Society, our “My Place” storytellers came together for a community writing workshop centered on the Queens Name Explorer.

    We all generated poems and personal stories on the page inspired by the historical significance behind the people’s names that grace Queens streets, parks, monuments, and more.


    Story partners Wichuda “Tang” McConnell and Mary Lannon. Photo credit: Sachyn Mital
    Before our first set of storytellers trade the true tales they started that day, give a listen as story coach Pichchenda Bao gets to know the writer better before their story partner takes the stage.

    These stories were performed live on May 28, 2025, at Grove 34 in Astoria.

    Stories

    • My Place or Bone China, William and Mary, and Me, by Mary Lannon, performed by Wichuda “Tang” McConnell, and directed by Erika Iverson
    • Say My Name, by Wichuda “Tang” McConnell, performed by Mary Lannon, and directed by Erika Iverson
    Bios

    Mary Lannon’s unpublished novel, Tide Girl, was a finalist for the 2023 PEN\Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction. Her stories have appeared at Necessary Fiction, Story, New World Writing, and elsewhere. She teaches writing and women and gender studies at Nassau Community College in Long Island, NY, and lives in Kew Gardens, where she runs a reading series at the local cemetery. More information at MaryLannon.com.

    Wichuda “Tang” McConnell is a social worker, wellness coach, photographer, and storyteller. Born and raised in southern Thailand, Tang has found solace in being displaced through writing to help process the complex conflict between alienation from her native land and belonging in her adopted one—and feeling that it was taboo to feel either. Tang works as a supervisor at an agency supporting the NYC DOHMH Early Intervention Program, serving New York’s youngest with developmental delays through in-home therapies. Tang is also a wellness coach who has guided many middle-aged women to attain their best health through lifestyle modification. She presently lives in Queens, New York, with her husband and two children.

    ***

    This project is supported by funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, Statewide Community Regrants Program (formerly the Decentralization program) with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature, and administered by Flushing Town Hall.

    This organization is funded in part by the Howard Gilman Foundation administered by Flushing Town Hall.
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    37 min
  • “Before & After” Part 2: Carl M. Banks and Nicole Greevy (Episode 80)

    “Before & After” Part 2: Carl M. Banks and Nicole Greevy (Episode 80)
    May 2 2025
    Give a listen to the second half of our first-ever student matinee, performed at the beautiful Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theatre at Symphony Space on March 13, 2025. Listen to Part 1 here.

    The fantastic Najah Imani Muhammad hosted the show for a theater full of high school juniors from Global Learning Collaborative and Talent Unlimited High School to help inspire the personal stories they want to tell in their college application essays.


    Story partners Carl M. Banks and Nicole Greevy embodied the low and high notes of each other’s musical true tales, captivating our student audience with both story and song.


    Thank you to NYSCA-A.R.T./New York Creative Opportunity Fund (A Statewide Theatre Regrant Program) for helping us make our first-ever student matinee a reality. Here’s to what we hope is the first of many!

    Photo credit: Russ Rowland

    Podcast narrated by Kelly Jean Fitzsimmons.

    Stories

    • “Carl’s Lucky Dollar,” by Carl M. Banks, performed by Nicole Greevy, and directed by KJ Fitzsimmons.
    • “Of Axes and Tree Surgeons,” by Nicole Greevy, performed by Carl M. Banks, and directed by KJ Fitzsimmons.
    Bios

    Carl M. Banks is a troubadour and musical nomad. Born in the heartland of Saint Louis, Missouri, he found his rhythm in the bustling streets of New York City, now calling Astoria, Queens, his home. Traversing the country as a touring singer-songwriter, his lyrics and melodies echo the highs and lows of the American landscape while his stories touch on personal and profound narratives. He has been featured on The Moth Radio Hour and WFUV’s local artist spotlight, “New York Slice.” Carl is also an ultra-marathon runner and co-creator of Queens-based “Bridge and a Slice Half Marathon” and “HotDog Eater 50 kilometer.”

    Nicole Greevy is a playwright and actor and is thrilled to be returning to No, YOU Tell It! You can read one of her previous pieces, “Nerd: The Next Generation,” in the No, YOU Tell It! Ten-Year Anthology. She is a New York State Council of the Arts 2025 grant recipient for playwriting. If you love her dulcet tones today, you can hear her as Sheriff Rowland, and many others, on the award-winning fiction podcast Uncanny County, where she contributes as both performer and writer.
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    36 min
  • “Before & After” Part 1: Calvin S. Cato and Michele Carlo (Episode 79)

    “Before & After” Part 1: Calvin S. Cato and Michele Carlo (Episode 79)
    Apr 18 2025
    Our spring “Before & After” show was our second time performing at the beautiful Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theatre at Symphony Space on March 13, 2025, but it was our very first student matinee!

    Our storytellers and our special guest host, Najah Imani Muhammad, who are all No, YOU Tell It! alums, illustrated the power of storytelling for a theater full of high school juniors from Global Learning Collaborative and Talent Unlimited High School to help inspire the personal stories they want to tell in their college application essays.


    Story siblings Calvin S. Cato and Michele Carlo. Photo credit: Russ Rowland
    Give a listen to part one of our show, where Calvin S. Cato and Michele Carlo become story siblings by stepping into each other’s true tales about the best-laid plans and unforeseen accidents that send our lives in new directions.

    Thank you to NYSCA-A.R.T./New York Creative Opportunity Fund (A Statewide Theatre Regrant Program) for helping us make our first-ever student matinee a reality. Here’s to what we hope is the first of many!

    Podcast narrated by Kelly Jean Fitzsimmons.

    Stories

    • “Don’t Quit Your Day Job,” by Calvin S. Cato, performed by Michele Carlo, and directed by Tim Lindner
    • “The Accident,” by Michele Carlo, performed by Calvin S. Cato, and directed by Tim Lindner.
    Bios

    Named one of Time Out New York’s LGBTQ Comics of Color to Watch Out For, Calvin S. Cato has dazzled audiences around the world. His on-air and radio appearances include Oxygen, Netflix, Sirius XM, RISK!, WIRED Magazine, and an unaired pilot for Vice Media called Emergency Black Meeting. His comedy has been featured in numerous festivals and events, including the New York Comedy Festival, San Francisco Sketchfest, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Gotham Storytelling Festival, Brooklyn Pride, and FlameCon. In early 2021, Calvin was published in Kweendom, an anthology of essays by queer comedians and entertainers. In 2022, Calvin concluded a three-month run hosting a daily talk show on RushTix.com.

    Michele Carlo is a writer, storyteller, sometimes actor, and the author of the NYC-set memoir Fish Out of Agua: My Life on Neither Side of the Subway Tracks (Citadel/Kensington). She has appeared on podcasts, festivals, and stages across the U.S., on NPR, and the WGBH-PBS television series Stories from the Stage. For bookings and more info, go to: www.michelecarlo.com

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    35 min
  • “Left My Heart” Part 2: Zach Rothman-Hicks and Carl M. Banks (Episode 78)

    “Left My Heart” Part 2: Zach Rothman-Hicks and Carl M. Banks (Episode 78)
    Dec 5 2024
    It is fitting that this heartfelt story swap, inspired by the life and music of Astoria legend Tony Bennett, includes our first live musical performance.

    Give a listen as story coach Tim Lindner gets to know a little bit more about our two storytellers before they step into each other true tales in the second half of our “Left My Heart” show.

    Content notice: These stories are true, traded with open hearts, and this half of the show contains a depiction of suicide.

    If you are in crisis, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255), or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741. You can learn more about suicide from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention at afsp.org.

    Carl M. Banks and Zach Rothman-Hicks

    Read about how engaging with Tony Bennet’s music and history from the Greater Astoria Historical Society archives inspired the storyteller’s modern-day true tales. The ART HEART portraits will be on display during the show, along with other surprises.

    Stories

    • HEAD, HEART, and SAN FRAN, by Zach Rothman-Hicks, performed by Carl M. Banks
    • THE HOUSE WHERE NOBODY LIVES, by Carl M. Banks, performed by Zach Rothman-Hicks
    Storyteller Bios

    Zach Rothman-Hicks is an educator and multimedia conceptual artist who creates interactive performances and projects intended to spark reflection, dialogue, and action. He has been a New York City Public School teacher since September 2009 and an Adjunct Lecturer at Hunter College since 2012 and Queens College since 2022. In April 2020, while a student in the PIMA MFA Program at Brooklyn College, he initiated Gabbing with Gays, a project that explored Emotional Intimacy in the LGBTQIA+ community. This project inspired future interactive art pieces, which were presented at the Staten Island Museum, Snug Harbor Cultural Center, the Newhouse Center, Alice Austen House, Easton Mountain, Queens Public Library, Hunters Point Park Conservancy, Chashama, Culture Lab, and the 14th Street Y.

    Carl M. Banks is a troubadour and musical nomad. Born in the heartland of Saint Louis, Missouri, he found his rhythm in the bustling streets of New York City, now calling Astoria, Queens, his home. Traversing the country as a touring singer-songwriter, his lyrics and melodies echo the highs and lows of the American landscape while his stories touch on personal and profound narratives. He has been featured on The Moth Radio Hour and on WFUV’s local artist spotlight, “New York Slice.” Carl is also an ultra-marathon runner and co-creator of Queens-based “Bridge and a Slice Half Marathon” and “HotDog Eater 50 kilometer.”
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    35 min
  • “Left My Heart” Part 1: January Yoon Cho and Catherine Kapphahn (Episode 77)

    “Left My Heart” Part 1: January Yoon Cho and Catherine Kapphahn (Episode 77)
    Nov 21 2024
    For the first time, our four storytellers participated in a Queens community “Art Heart” event about a month before the show, where all the participants generated and shared personal stories inspired by the life and music of Astoria legend Tony Bennet from the Greater Astoria Historical Society archives.

    What started that day grew into this heartfelt story swap about the intricacies of mothers, daughters, language, music, and the immigrant experience.

    Give a listen to the first half of our “Left My Heart” show performed at Grove 34 on June 5, 2024. Full program here.


    Story partners Catherine Kapphahn and January Yoon Cho

    Read this imaginary interview with Tony Bennett published in the Queens Gazette by Bob Singleton, Executive Director of the Greater Astoria Historical Society.

    Stories

    • MOTHER’S DREAM, by January Yoon Cho, performed by Catherine Kapphahn
    • LOPSIDED STAR, by Catherine Kapphahn, performed by January Yoon Cho
    Storyteller Bios

    January Yoon Cho, an interdisciplinary visual artist, works with video, photography, and drawing, intertwining themes of social conformity, feminism, and environmentalism. She has exhibited across the US and Europe. Notably, Cho’s The Walk Project received fiscal sponsorship from the NY Foundation for the Arts and grants from the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund and Puffin Grant for Feminist and Environmental Art. Cho has taught at Parsons School of Design, New School University, and Hanyang University (Seoul). Originally from Seoul, Korea, she moved to the US in 1990 for her art education, earning a BFA from RISD and an MFA from Parsons.

    Catherine Kapphahn is a writer, educator, storyteller, and speaker. Her memoir Immigrant Daughter: Stories You Never Told Mereceived The Center for Fiction’s Christopher Doheny Award and was published by Audible. Her manuscript Miseducation of a Dyslexic Girl: a Memoir in Poems and Classrooms was recently long-listed for the Steel Toe Books Poetry Award. Catherine received grants from the Queens Council on the Arts and City Artist Corps. Her writing has appeared in Queensbound, Motherwell Magazine, Croatia Week, Newtown Literary, the Feminist Press Anthology This is the Way We Say Goodbye, Astoria Life, and CURE Magazine. Catherine is an adjunct lecturer at City University of New York at Lehman College in the Bronx, where her students’ stories inspire her. Catherine is also a yoga teacher. She grew up near the mountains in Colorado and now lives between two bridges in Queens, New York, with her husband and two sons.
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    41 min
  • “Hell Gate” Part 2: Alicia Lieu and A. King McCarty (Episode 76)

    “Hell Gate” Part 2: Alicia Lieu and A. King McCarty (Episode 76)
    Oct 22 2024
    After the main arch was completed, a writer for the New York Tribune said: “Perhaps never in human history has a mechanical triumph of such magnitude been launched with so little fanfare.”

    In the second half of our Hell Gate show (Listen to Part 1 here), founding member and story director Erika Iverson interviews the authors before their story partners take the stage so that we can learn more about them and the inspiration for their true tales, the Hell Gate Bridge.
    Our September 25 Hell Gate show at Grove 34 in Astoria was a Queens-based Bookend Event for the 2024 Brooklyn Book Festival. Four Queens storytellers traded true tales inspired by the history of the Hell Gate Bridge from the Greater Astoria Historical Society archives.

    Featured Stories

    THE BRIDGE TO THE BRIDGE, by Alicia Lieu, performed by A. King McCarty, and directed by KJ Fitzsimmons

    UNDER THE HELL GATE, by A. King McCarty, performed by Alicia Lieu, and directed by Erika Iverson
    Bios

    Alicia Lieu, Jackson Heights/Elmhurst based composer/conductor hails from San Jose, California. As a composer, she has been awarded grants from QCA and City Artist Corps. She is the creator of Dance-it-Yourself Nutcracker and co-founder of nonprofits Composers Collective, Pitches Brew, and New York Conducting Institute. She spent two years living abroad in Shanghai, China, before moving to NYC and conducting has taken her to Russia, Bulgaria, and the Czech Republic. She earned her B.A. in Music Composition from UC Santa Barbara, M.M. in Composition from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and M.M. in Orchestral Conducting from UT El Paso.

    A. King McCarty (Ashley King) is an artist, writer, actor, musician and founder of Artstoria New York with her husband and fellow creator, Graham McCarty. She is a two-time recipient of the Queens Community Art Grant and an Art Hotel resident artist. She lives near the Hell Gate Bridge with her husband, son and lots of plants and comic books. Visit her on Instagram at @artstoriany and @akingmccarty

    ***

    THIS IS AN OFFICIAL 2024 BROOKLYN BOOK FESTIVAL BOOKEND EVENT

    The Greater Astoria Historical Society is the place to learn and celebrate Long Island City and its neighborhoods. Learn more at astorialic.org.

    This project is supported by funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, Statewide Community Regrants Program (formerly the Decentralization program) with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature, and administered by Flushing Town Hall.

    No, YOU Tell It! “Hell Gate” is made possible (in part) with public funds from the Queens Arts Fund, a re-grant program supported by New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and administered by New York Foundation for the Arts.
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    37 min
  • “Hell Gate” Part 1: Jackie Sherbow and Mia Arias Tsang (Episode 75)

    “Hell Gate” Part 1: Jackie Sherbow and Mia Arias Tsang (Episode 75)
    Oct 14 2024
    “With a regular coat of paint that bridge can last as long as the pyramids.” – Bob Singleton, Executive Director, Greater Astoria Historical Society from Hell Gate Bridge, an Astoria icon, turns 100 years old in AMNY, March 27, 2017

    Our September Hell Gate show at Grove 34 in Astoria was a Queens-based Bookend Event for the 2024 Brooklyn Book Festival. Four Queens storytellers traded true tales inspired by the history of the Hell Gate Bridge from the archives of the Greater Astoria Historical Society.

    Before their story partner takes the stage, story coach Pichchenda Bao asks the authors a Hell Gate-themed question to learn a bit more about the iconic bridge and the writer. The full program is here.

    Jackie Sherbow and Mia Arias Tsang
    Story partners Jackie Sherbow and Mia Arias Tsang. Photo credit Yui Kitamura.
    Featured Stories

    CROSSING THE BRIDGE by Jackie Sherbow, performed by Mia Arias Tsang, directed by Erika Iverson

    REAWAKENING by Mia Arias Tsang, performed by Jackie Sherbow, and directed by KJ Fitzsimmons

    Bios

    Jackie Sherbow is the Woodside, Queens-based author of Harbinger (Finishing Line Press, 2019), publisher at THRASH Press, and senior managing editor of Ellery Queen’s and Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazines. Their poems and stories have appeared in places like The Sierra Nevada Review, Luna Luna, Mystery Magazine, and Asimov’s Science Fiction. They are the former editor-in-chief and currently serve on the board of directors of Newtown Literary, the journal and organization dedicated to the writers of Queens.

    Mia Arias Tsang is a writer and freelance editor based in New York City. Her work explores themes of queer desire, intimacy, and disconnect. A Tin House Summer Workshop alum, her work has appeared in Copy, Autostraddle, Half Mystic Press, Fatal Flaw Magazine, and Broad Recognition Magazine, among others. She is a copy editor for the literary magazine Identity Theory and program coordinator at the literary nonprofit House of SpeakEasy, and writes a newsletter called Overripe Peach. She lives in Queens with her cat, Peanut, and is currently working on a novel.

    ***

    THIS IS AN OFFICIAL 2024 BROOKLYN BOOK FESTIVAL BOOKEND EVENT

    The Greater Astoria Historical Society is the place to learn and celebrate Long Island City and its neighborhoods. Learn more at astorialic.org.

    This project is supported by funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, Statewide Community Regrants Program (formerly the Decentralization program) with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature, and administered by Flushing Town Hall.

    No, YOU Tell It! “Hell Gate” is made possible (in part) with public funds from the Queens Arts Fund, a re-grant program supported by New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and administered by New York Foundation for the Arts.
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    27 min
  • “Fly By” Part 2: Ben Katzner and Briana McDonald (Episode 74)

    “Fly By” Part 2: Ben Katzner and Briana McDonald (Episode 74)
    Apr 8 2024
    Kicking off part 2 of our “Fly By” show, host Ellie Dvorkin Dunn shares some fun facts about teenage pilot Elinor Smith before we hear the second set of true tales inspired by the story of “The Flying Flapper” from the archives of the Greater Astoria Historical Society.

    No, YOU Tell It! “Fly By” was on September 28, 2023, at Grove 34 in Astoria. Podcast introduction by Kelly Jean Fitzsimmons and features:

    • Like Me or Not by Ben Katzner, performed by Briana McDonald, directed by Erika Iverson
    • Macarons by Briana McDonald, performed by Ben Katzner, directed by Erika Iverson

    Donate here to support No, YOU Tell It!, and we’ll send you an electronic copy of Annie Shi’s zine, “The Flying Flapper,” that we gave out to the audience at the show so you can learn more about Elinor Smith and her historic 1928 flight under not one but four East River bridges – Brooklyn, Manhattan, Williamsburg … and Queensboro!

    Want a copy of Ben or Briana’s middle-grade books? Grab your copy and share it with the young readers in your life.

    • The Secrets of Stone Creek and more by Briana McDonald
    • Hello My Name is Poop by Ben Katzner
    SPECIAL THANKS

    No, YOU Tell It! “Fly By” was an OFFICIAL 2023 BROOKLYN BOOK FESTIVAL BOOKEND EVENT.

    The Greater Astoria Historical Society is the place to learn and celebrate Long Island City and its neighborhoods. Learn more at astorialic.org.

    This project is supported by funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, Statewide Community Regrants Program (formerly the Decentralization program) with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature, and administered by Flushing Town Hall.

    This project is made possible (in part) with public funds from the Queens Arts Fund, a re-grant program supported by New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and administered by New York Foundation for the Arts.
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    26 min